SKIP bins and drums positioned in the Lusaka central business centre for dumping garbage have been stolen to be used as scrap metal for making braziers and pots.

Kennedy Musonda, a trader at the town centre, accused garbage collectors of being behind the stealing of the drums that were strategically placed in trading centres and neighborhoods in which to throw rubbish.

Mr Musonda called on the Lusaka City Council to deploy more council police officers to guard the bins and drums which were being stolen to make braziers to counter the cold season.

Mr Musonda said the garbage that was piling up at collection points in the city after the drums and bins were stolen was a major source of concern and accused garbage collectors of stealing the bins which they sold to scrap metal dealers.

Memory Kabuswe, a trader at Downtown trading area, said it was sad that people could resort to selling garbage bins and drums meant for refuse disposal.

She said Government was spending millions of Kwacha to ensure that there was sanity in the collection of garbage and combat diseases caused by uncollected garbage.

And Monica Kango of PHI suggested that the local authority should stop providing refuse bins to residential areas, but to educate the public on proper ways of disposing their garbage.

She said it was not the intention of the council to put bins all over the city but to make people understand that the indiscriminate disposal of garbage was not allowed.

Ms Kango said communities must be responsible with the way they dispose of their garbage and not rely on the local authority to provide bins.

Meanwhile, Mwazanji Tembo, a Msisi resident, said drums placed for garbage disposal were stolen by scrap metal dealers who were making braziers and spots in compounds.

In 2007 late President Levy Mwanawasa launched the ‘‘Make Zambia Clean and Healthy campaign’’ with the view to making homes, communities, villages, towns and cities clean.

Dr Mwanawasa noted with concern that for years communities, towns and cities had been plagued by inadequate sanitation services, inappropriate personal and food hygiene practices, along with low knowledge levels by citizens concerning basic health and hygiene matters.